The Toronto Maple Leafs are venturing out to Western Canada and are preparing themselves for back to back games versus the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday and Calgary Flames on Wednesday. The Buds will be kick-starting their December against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night and it could be quite the gong show if the excitement carry’s over from last time the Leafs mauled the Canucks.

The Leafs are coming off a big win against Ovechkin and his Washington Capitals. Toronto won 4-2 and used their speed and multiple lines to pierce through the Caps defense and sneak four past Holtby.

Martin scored his second goal and has continued to show he is the boss when he’s on the ice. Nobody messes with any Leafs or Martin for that matter when he’s policing the game.

James van Riemesdyk continued his scoring ways, chipping in his ninth goal on the powerplay, where Marner got his eleventh assist of the season, as he also had an apple on Martin’s goal.

Matthews decided he would join the party with his ninth, just twenty seconds into the third period which gave Toronto a 3-0 lead. Toronto continued their fast paced game and worked hard at both ends of the ice, perhaps they learned a few things from their previous meltdowns when sporting a decent lead.

Nazem Kadri did it again; he played a very solid shutdown game taking Ovechkin’s offense out of the game and potted a goal himself which ended up being the Leafs insurance goal after Backstrom scored half way through the third period. Nazem Kadri is playing some of the best hockey to date; he’s been great on both ends of the puck and is helping the Maple Leafs move forward as a team.

Babcock is pushing all of the right buttons with Kadri as he prepared him last season for the role he will be asked to play for the young Leafs team. If Toronto can keep three quality lines healthy, the results will continue to show as the Leafs are above the .500 mark at the quarter mark of the season. It’s a beautiful things being in the plus, wouldn’t you agree? Toronto’s currently three points back of a wildcard playoff spot.

When the Leafs face-off against Edmonton tomorrow, they will be facing a Oilers team who has been scoring a lot of goals. The Oilers are 3-6-1 in their last ten games after having a sizzling start to the season. The top line of Lucic, McDavid and rookie Puljujarvi has been hot as of late, so the Kadri treatment on McDavid is a must. The Leafs shutdown McDavid last time they played each other and did a good job at limiting the most dangerous player in the leagues scoring chances. The Oilers will likely expect it this time around, so Kadri better keep his head up when Lucic is on the ice.

The Leafs will have a great chance to take six points this week and you better believe it that Frederik Andersen will be doing all he can to help the Leafs achieve this task.

Andersen has been spectacular!

In the last five games Andersen has let in 9 goals on a total of 154 shots. In that time he won the Leafs three games and kept them in two others, he’s posted a .943, .931, .931, .963 and a .941 save percent in those games. Those are stats of a quality starter, just what Lamoriello and Shanahan saw when they offered Andersen a five year deal at 25 million.

Sorry Anaheim, looks like you may have picked the wrong goalie to keep!

For the record: John Gibson 6-7-3 .906 – on what should be a much better team!

Another excellent move by Leafs management as they fixed the team’s most glaring need: a starting goalie.

Last week I mentioned that Matthews had a two goal game and a four goal game and the Leafs had lost both of those games, well, finally Matthews buries one and the Leafs win the game. For what it’s worth, I figured it was worth sharing.

The Leafs have enjoyed the surge of energy that Soshnikov brings to the table. He’s the type of player who seems to give 100% every shift and is excellent at winning battles in the corners. With Toronto having a lot of skilled players who are not overly large in size, it’s nice to have a player like Soshnikov who can go into the dirty area’s and get the job done. His presence is certainly noticeable to JVR as he mentioned:

“He’s got a big shot and he hunts the puck back pretty well,” van Riemsdyk said of the pugnacious Russian. “A big part of the power play is getting the puck back. He's excitable and yelling for the puck when he’s open. He lets you know he’s there and that’s a good thing.”

Good to hear the boys are working well together and enjoying some success which I feel is a vital part to the team growing together and winning as a team.

Things are looking up in Leafs Nation, let’s hope the boys can go on a nice little Western swing here and come out with a handful of points.

Marlies: Garret Sparks

The Toronto Maple Leafs have suspended goalie prospect Garret Sparks for violating team policy. They will be reevaluating the situation this week, keep you posted.

Thanks for reading, enjoy your week!

Go Leafs Go!

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